A Heart of Amber
by SK Dark Dragon
Summary: Duke's friend from America has come to find the boy who stole her heart, and never e-mailed when he returned to Japan! -First in my series- -Completed-
1. Chapter 1

A Heart of Amber  
  
Chapter One  
It was a sunny day in Domino, Japan, and Yugi Motou and his friends, Joey   
Wheeler, Triston Taylor, Duke Devlin, and Tea Gardner were standing around  
Yugi's desk, discussing the latest news.  
  
"So there's a new student arriving today?" Joey asked, leaning over  
Yugi's desk.  
  
Yugi nodded.  
  
"Yes, and they say he or she is just visiting Japan for a while,"  
Yugi replied.  
  
"Well, that's cool," Duke said, twisting a lock of hair around one  
of his fingers.  
  
"I wonder who he's going to be," Triston muttered.  
  
"Choto Matte!(wait a minute)" Tea cried angrily. "It could be  
a girl too you know!"  
  
"It darn well could be," An icy voice from behind them snapped.  
  
Funny thing was, it was female.  
  
Behind them stood the oddest-looking girl Yugi had ever seen. She was  
wearing a pink T-Shirt with black jeans and a black necklace with an  
amber pendant was around her neck.   
  
She let her long brown hair hang loose behind her back, and she   
wore purple earings and purple eye-shadow.  
  
"Am...Amber?" Duke cried, stepping backwards.  
  
"What has Duke got against the girl's necklace?" Yugi wondered, but  
the girl didn't seem to care.  
  
"Duke," she said with a smile, walking over to him.  
  
When she got close enough, she slapped him across the cheek.  
  
"Just where have you BEEN, Duke Devlin?!" she snapped angrily as  
he rubbed his red cheek.  
  
She spoke quick English, which Yugi and the other's couldn't quite  
Translate.  
  
"Amber! I've been...busy!" Duke replied, in English.  
  
"Ha! That's the lamest excuse I've ever heard!" she snapped.  
  
Yugi and the others looked from Duke to Amber, confused.  
  
"Yugi, why is she yelling?" Joey whispered.  
  
Yugi shrugged.  
  
"Really, Amber, you've got to believe me!" Duke begged.  
  
"Why should I?" Amber snapped. "You promised to e-mail me everyday! I never got one note! Do you know how worried I've been?!"  
  
"I meant to e-mail you, I promise I did!" Duke cried. "But the second  
I got back to Japan, I ran into Yugi here, and his friends, and they  
Were in trouble! They needed my help.  
  
"And that took two weeks!?"  
  
"No! I had to go with them to their tournament they were in and  
I didn't have computer access. I only got back last week and I've been  
Up to my neck in work!" Duke said.  
  
"Stuff that was more important than giving me ONE LETTER?!" Amber  
shrieked.  
  
People in the classroom were staring at her, but luckily, no one  
Else could speak fluent English.  
  
"Um..." Yugi muttered. "Duke?"  
  
"Doshta?(What's wrong)" Amber snapped, in Japanese. "We're having a   
conversation here and I don't need you butting in!"  
  
"You can speak Japanese too!?" Joey asked.  
  
Amber nodded, angrily.  
  
"But, why are you so mad at Duke?" Tea asked.  
  
"Well, it all started a few weeks ago, when I was in America," Duke  
explained. "I had decided to hold a DDM tournament for players in the   
country and one of the contestants was Amber Johnson," he pointed to   
her. "The new National Duel Monster Champion."  
  
Amber nodded proudly.  
  
"I had just finished beating Rebecca Hawkins and Bandit what-ever-  
he-calls-himself," she declared.  
  
"Anyway, she WON my tournament, (of course I wasn't competing)," Duke  
explained. "So afterwards, I decided to get to know her better."  
  
"We had lots of fun, hanging out and everything," Duke said, slightly  
blushing. "But I had to come back here soon."  
  
"So we exchanged e-mail addresses and he promised to write every   
day!" Amber finished, glaring at Duke. "But he never wrote once! That's the  
reason I came here...to visit the school during my trip here." She added   
quickly.  
  
"Amber, I'm really sorry," Duke apologized, in English again, so no one else could tease him about what he was saying. "I didn't mean to hurt your feelings."   
  
"Well you did anyway," Amber said sadly, turning away.  
  
"Look," Duke said, putting his hand on her shoulder. "Let's talk   
about this..."  
  
But the bell rang at that exact moment, and all the students ran over to their desks, getting ready for school that day.  
  
"Later," Amber said, brushing by him and sitting down in the back of the room.  
  
"Yikes, she sure has an attitude," Triston muttered to Duke as the two sat down next to each other. "I wouldn't even WANT to e-mail her."  
  
"Triston!" Duke muttered angrily, but felt to guilty to get too angry.  
  
"How could I have forgotten her?" Duke thought miserably as he stared blankly ahead.  
  
An hour passed before any realized it, and the bell rang for lunch.  
  
Duke slouched over to the door and walked outside. Everyone else had already left.  
  
"Oy, Duke!" Joey said, running over to him. "So, what's up with the "I forgot my girlfriend" thing?"  
  
"Joey..." Duke growled through gritted teeth. "I don't want to talk about it to you."  
  
"Fine, fine," Joey said smiling.   
  
Duke walked into the lunch room (Joey ran off imeadiately to get in line for pizza) and looked around.   
  
He couldn't see Amber through the sea of people swimming around in the room. Yugi was talking to Triston, Seto Kaiba was sitting by himself reading some large book that Duke was not interested in finding more about, and Joey, of course, was in line.  
  
Suddenly, he spotted her! She walking around, looking for a table, and suddenly walked right over to KAIBA'S table and sat down at the other end.  
  
Duke sweat-dropped.  
  
"I can't talk to her in front of him!" he whined to himself. "I don't know if he speaks English or not!"  
  
"Just play it Duke-Devlin-cool," he thought, slicking his hair back.  
  
He walked over to Kaiba's table and sat down next to Amber. Kaiba looked over the brim of his book at them, then turned back to reading.  
  
"Good, he probably doesn't even care," Duke sighed with relief.  
  
"Uh...hi there, Amber," he said with a little wave to get her attention.  
  
She looked up from her sandwich.  
  
"Oh, hello Duke," she said coldly.  
  
"Look, please just hear me out," Duke pleaded. "I'm sorry, and I promise I'll make it up to you."  
  
"How would you like it if someone you wanted to hear from didn't e-mail you for weeks?" she snapped.  
  
Kaiba raised an eyebrow behind his book.  
  
"What?" he thought to himself, but didn't ask either of them anything.   
  
Instead, he continued to read his book.  
  
Duke sighed.  
  
"I know, I was just kind of...busy...and forgot a few things!" he said apologetically.  
  
Amber sighed.  
  
"All right Duke," she sighed. "I GUESS I'll give you another chance."  
  
"Thanks," Duke sighed happily. "Why don't you meet me tonight at the Pizza Parlor, so we can talk."  
  
"Okay," she said brightly.  
  
"Well, I've got to go," Duke said, backing away from the table. "Talk to you later!"  
  
As he backed up, he tripped over Joey, who was carrying a mountain of food on a tray.  
  
"Watch it!" Joey cried, but the tray slipped out of his hands and landed on the floor with a splat, splattering both of them with food.  
  
"Eww..." Duke muttered, looking at his clothes, now heavily stained with lunch-food.  
  
"Watch where you're going next time!" Joey yelled.  
  
There was a giggle from behind them.  
  
Joey snapped up, looking around.  
  
"What's so funny?" he demanded to know, from Kaiba and Amber.  
  
"Nothing," Kaiba said, looking up from his book. Then he started to laugh.  
  
"I changed my mind. You're pretty funny LOOKING," he said with another laugh.  
  
"So," Joey charged, looking at Amber. "It was YOU, new girly."  
  
"So what?" she asked, rolling her trash up into a ball. "It was funny."  
  
"Oh, and when you throw that stuff out, you can take this too," she said, tossing her paper ball at him.  
  
Joey, steaming, allowed it to hit him in the head and bounce of again. It rolled under a table.  
  
"DEVLIN!" he snapped, turning around. "I don't like your new girlfriend one bit!"  
  
Duke shrugged and walked away, leaving Joey to clean up the mess by himself.  
  
Kaiba got up and closed his book. As he walked by Joey, who was picking up the mess, he said, "Need some doggie bags for that?"  
  
"Kaiba!!!!" Joey yelled, his patience lost.   
  
He looked around for something to throw, and the first thing he saw was the smashed pizza on his tray.  
  
"Take...THIS!" he yelled, throwing it at Kaiba, where it splattered off the back of his purple coat.  
  
The whole lunch room got quiet.  
  
Kaiba turned around angrily at Joey.  
  
For a second, he looked as though he was going to beat Joey up, but then he simply turned, and walked away.  
  
"Whew," Joey thought, his common sense coming back. "I can't believe I did that." 


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter Two  
  
That evening, Duke was getting ready at his Game Shop to go to the Pizza Parlor to meet Amber.   
  
"This is going to be wonderful," he thought, as he re-adjusted his dice earring. "She'll see that I'm still a good guy after all and she won't be mad anymore."  
  
He checked the clown clock on the wall. It said 7:00 pm.  
  
He was supposed to be there at 7:20.   
  
"Well, I'd better get going," he thought, as he grabbed his book bag off the chair and went over to the elevators outside his office.  
  
He pushed the "down" button and waited for a few minutes as the creaky elevator made its way to his floor.  
  
"Come on!" he thought angrily, pounding on the door. "Maybe I ought to use the stair-well," he thought, but at that moment, the doors creaked open.  
  
"Good," he thought to himself, getting in.  
  
He pressed the bottom floor button, and the doors reluctantly closed. The elevator began to descend at an alarmingly SLOW rate. It seemed to be going slower, and slower, and SLOWER, until it stopped in the middle of two floors.  
  
"Oh NO!" he cried, banging on the door.  
  
"HELP!" he cried. "Can someone hear me? I'm stuck in the elevator!"  
  
One floor below, an employee was walking by when she hear a vague, muffled, voice.  
  
"help! Help!" It was saying.  
  
"What the?" Mai Valentine asked as she looked at the elevator. "IS someone in there?"  
  
She stopped.  
  
"Maybe I shouldn't look inside. If I get caught doing something wrong on my first day of being Duke's Secretary, I'll be fired for the third time this month!"  
  
"Please help!" The voice continued to cry.  
  
"Ack!" Duke yelled, banging his fist on the rusty door. "Amber's going to KILL me if I'm not there!"  
  
"She's going to kill me!" Mai heard.  
  
"Maybe I should help after all. It sounds like someone's being murdered in the elevator!"  
  
"Don't worry!" she called as she fumbled for the button. "I'll save you!"  
  
"Save you!" Duke heard a faint voice from below him call.  
  
"Thank goodness," Duke sighed. "I got someone's attention."  
  
Mai pressed the down button, but no elevator came. In fact, nothing even moved.  
  
"It must be stuck!" she thought frantically. "I'll bet the murderer stopped it to kill whoever's in there!"  
  
"Help!" she cried to a young man who was walking by. "The elevator is stuck and I think there's a killer in there!"  
  
"What?!" he cried, running over to the elevator and opening the switch box.  
  
"I'll force the doors open," he told her, jamming down a button.  
  
The doors flew open all right, to reveal no elevator.  
  
Mai nearly tripped into the narrow passageway, but the man grabbed her in time.   
  
"Thanks," she murmered, looking up. "HEY! There's the elevator!"  
  
The man pulled Mai back inside and looked up.   
  
"There it is all right," he said, frowning. "Call the police, and I'll get someone to get the elevators unstuck."  
  
"We'll get you out of there soon!" he called up to Duke.  
  
"Soon..." Duke heard.  
  
He slumped down to the floor.  
  
"How could something like this happen?" he moaned. 


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 3  
  
Amber was waiting in a booth at the Pizza Parlor, watching the other guests enjoy their meals. A young waiter walked over to her table a second later and set down a glass of Sprite.  
  
"Will you be ordering now ma'am?" he asked politely, taking out a pad of paper.  
  
Amber shook her head.  
  
"No, I'm waiting for a friend," she said with a small smile. "He said he'd be here around 7:20."  
  
"But miss," The waiter said, puzzled, as he took out his pocket-watch. "It's past 7:30."  
  
"It...is?" she asked, her voice slightly breaking. "Um...I'm sure he just got lost or something..."  
  
"Yes ma'am," The waiter said, walking away.  
  
Amber forced herself to look outside, not wanting anyone else to see her face, in case she started to tear-up.  
  
"Where are you Duke?" she thought to herself, toying with her amber pendant. "Maybe he just really doesn't like me after all...but he seemed so...sincere at lunch."  
  
She sighed.  
  
Then, she picked up her purse and walked for the door, not touching her sprite.   
  
"Here," she said shortly, putting some money down on the front desk. "Use the change for a tip."  
  
Then, she walked out the door without another word.  
  
Meanwhile, Duke was slumped down in the elevator still, waiting for someone to rescue him from his prison.  
  
Suddenly, the elevator began to move again. It was going down!  
  
"YES!" Duke cried, standing up and waiting for the doors to open again. "I'm free!"  
  
The elevator came to a stop at the bottom floor, and when the doors open, a whole crew of police officers were waiting there, guns pointed directly at Duke!  
  
"Um...hi?" Duke asked, putting his hands up in the air to be safe.  
  
"Mr. Devlin?" The young man who had assisted Mai earlier asked, moving passed the police. "What were you doing in the elevator?"  
  
"I was stuck!" Duke said angrily, crossing his arms.  
  
"No one was trying to kill you?" Mai asked.  
  
"NO!" Duke snapped, remembering what he had shouted about Amber wanting to kill him. "Speaking of which," he said, looking up. "Has any of you got the time?"  
  
"Yeah," An officer said, checking his indiglo watch. "It's around...7:40."  
  
"7:40!!?" Duke cried, sprinting down the hall. "AMBER!"  
  
"What?" Mai asked, peering around the corner as he sped out the door and into the night.  
  
"May we leave now?" An officer asked.  
  
"Fine," Mai said, absentmindedly, still staring after Duke.  
  
Duke hurried down the dark streets, hoping he could explain things to Amber.  
  
"Please still be there," he thought as he took a right turn.   
  
He was almost there.  
  
He dodged three cars as he ran across the street and up to the Pizza Parlor. He pushed the door open and walked in, panting for breath.  
  
"May I...help you sir?" The waiter from before asked.  
  
"Yeah..." he panted, flopping down on the sofa where a sign read "Wait to be Seated. "Can...you...tell me if there was a girl in here, about 16 with brown hair and...pink shirt...?"  
  
"Yes sir," The waiter said, looking at where Amber had been sitting. "She was waiting for company, but they were late and she left ten minutes ago."  
  
"Drat-it!" Duke said angrily, standing up. "Thanks anyway."  
  
He took off out the door leaving the clueless waiter behind.  
  
"Please don't be mad," he thought as he ran across the street again.   
  
He stopped to think for a minute. During their brief phone conversation earlier, she had mentioned something about staying at the Willow Hotel.  
  
"Where is that?" Duke thought, looking around at his surroundings.   
  
It was getting late, and the lights had turned on for every restaurant as the sun had already gone down. A clock in the middle of the square read 8:10.  
  
"How am I going to get there at this hour?" he thought as a tall man walked by.  
  
"Excuse me sir?" Duke asked, walking up to the man.  
  
"Yeah?"   
  
The man turned around.   
  
"Can you tell me where the Willow Hotel is?" Duke asked, desperately.  
  
"Yeah, it's down three blocks and over 2," the man replied, pointing Duke in the correct direction. "But what's a kid like you doing out here all by yourself?"  
  
Duke chose not to respond.  
  
"Arigata!(Thank you)" he called as he ran down the path.  
  
Meanwhile, over at Yugi's Game Shop, Yugi was playing with his Duel Monster cards on his bed when the telephone rang.  
  
"Hai (yes)?" he answered, using the cell phone that had been beside his bed from a phone call with Joey earlier.  
  
"Yugi?"   
  
It was Tea.  
  
"Yes, Tea?" Yugi asked.  
  
"Hi, how have you been?"  
  
"Good, I guess," Yugi replied, sitting back down on his bed.  
  
"What do you think of the Amber girl?" Tea asked.  
  
"Well, in terms of a girl or as in terms of a girl-FRIEND for Duke?" Yugi asked.  
  
"Both, I guess," Tea answered. "I just hope Duke's DATE went all right with her."  
  
"Mm," Yugi agreed, nodding, even though Tea couldn't see him through the phone.  
  
"I wonder if everything worked out with them..." Tea thought.  
  
However, things weren't working out well at all. Duke, out of breath, sweaty, and tired, had arrived at the Willow Hotel 20 minutes later. It was 8:30, and there was hardly anyone in the reception room.  
  
"May I...help you?" The clerk asked, raising an eyebrow at Duke's shabby appearance.  
  
"Yes..." he panted. "Can you...give me...Amber Johnson's room?"  
  
"Amber Johnson?" The women asked, scrolling down her list of residents. "Yes, she's room 231, on the 3rd floor."  
  
"Thanks," Duke gasped, turning away from the desk.  
  
"The elevator is that way!" The women called, pointing to the right.  
  
Duke backed away.  
  
"I've had enough of elevators for one day," he thought to himself and instead ran up two flights of stairs.   
  
By the time he reached the third floor, he collapsed beside the soda machine. He put in a few coins to get a drink and sat there for a few moments, thinking about what to say to her.  
  
*Hi Amber! I'm sorry I wasn't at the parlor on time. Would you believe I was stuck in an elevator? *  
  
"She won't buy that, even though it's true," he thought to himself, taking another sip of his soda.  
  
A lady with a dachshund walked by. It yipped at him as it passed.  
  
"I've got to do it sometime or another," Duke thought, standing up and tossing his can in the nearest trash can. "And the sooner...*gulp*...the better...I guess."  
  
***  
  
End of Chapter 3!! Please Review, if you've got the time, and check out my other stories if you haven't already. Thank you! 


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter 4  
  
Duke walked down the hallway, paying close attention to the door numbers on the wall.  
  
Finally, he reached Amber's door. He stood there for a moment, hoping to say the right thing, and then knocked on the door twice.  
  
There was no answer from inside.  
  
"Amber?" Duke called.  
  
He heard a door shut and footsteps coming to the door. He heard a vague sniffle as someone inside, probably Amber, rummaged around with something by the door.  
  
"Who is it?" Amber asked, her voice sounding as though she'd been crying.  
  
"It's...it's Duke," Duke said. "Amber, listen, I know you're probably upset about me not being at the restaurant, but it wasn't my fault this time!"  
  
"I'm tired of hearing excuses, Duke," Amber sobbed from inside the room. "I thought when I first met you, you were the perfect guy for me, that you really liked me..."  
  
"I do, Amber!"  
  
"...But first you didn't write, and then you blow me off at the restaurant like that..."  
  
"You've got to believe me Amber! I wanted to be there, but the elevator..." Duke protested, but Amber cut in.  
  
"...It's all the same! There's always another excuse. I guess you're just not the person I thought you were," Amber said through her tears, and Duke could hear her sit down by the door.  
  
"But...Amber," Duke started to say, putting his hand up to the door.  
  
"Just go," Amber moaned.  
  
Duke stood there, stunned, for a few moments, then he turned and sadly walked down the hall again. He felt terrible.  
  
True, the elevator incident wasn't his fault at all, but it had been his fault to not even write a short letter to her.  
  
"No wonder she doesn't like me anymore," Duke thought, as he walked out of the hotel, kicking a pebble down the dark sidewalk. "What kind of a friend doesn't write for weeks, and then doesn't show up for a meeting?"  
  
The walk home seemed short, and before he knew it he was back at his Game Shop/house. He walked upstairs, (he didn't trust the elevator) and into his bedroom.  
  
He sat down at his desk and stared out the window.   
  
"What a mess," he thought, pulling open one of his drawers and pulling out a photo-album.   
  
He flipped through to the middle, where he'd put his pictures from his trip to America. There were several shots of his DDM tournament, and then a couple of him and Amber.   
  
He remembered how much fun the two of them had, going around the city together, playing Dungeon Dice, talking...  
  
**"And who are you?" Duke asked, sitting at the front desk in the gym.   
  
It was the day of his DDM tournament, and many children of all ages had shown up to play. They all had crowded into the gym, sitting around at tables, playing with the dice, waiting for everyone to register.  
  
"I'm Amber Johnson, THE National Champ. for Duel Monsters," Amber replied with a grin. "And I'm hoping to become just as good at this dice game."  
  
"Really," Duke said with a grin, writing her name into his computer data-base. "We'll see about that."  
  
"We will indeed," Amber replied with a wink as she accepted her entry card from him.   
  
Later that day, Amber had beaten the last contestant, therefore winning the entire tournament.  
  
"Well, it looks as though I won the bet," Amber said happily to Duke after she received her ribbon.  
  
"Bet?" Duke asked.  
  
"Yeah, you didn't think I could be as good at DDM as I was at Duel Monsters," Amber replied.  
  
"Hmmm," Duke said, thinking. "I guess I WAS wrong. But how about this? Would you like to get to know each other better?"  
  
Amber nodded happily.  
  
"Sure, and maybe I'll even end up beating you at DDM too!"  
  
"Now THAT, I doubt," Duke said with a laugh as the two walked off together. **  
  
She was almost exactly like he was. She had an odd sense of fashion, and a passion for games. As far as girls went, she was the best.  
  
** "So where do you want to do today, Duke?" Amber asked one morning when the two met in the city square.  
  
"Well, you can decide that, but I've got some...bad news," Duke said sadly, twisting his hair around his finger like he always did.  
  
"Bad news?" Amber asked quizzically. "What kind of bad news?"  
  
"Well, tomorrow I've got to...go back to Japan," Duke admitted.  
  
"Go back?" Amber asked in disbelief. "But...I'll never see you again if you go back."  
  
"Aw...don't say that," Duke said cheerily. "There's always e-mail and stuff like that. We can stay in contact that way."  
  
Amber bit her lip.   
  
"I guess..." she said sadly, looking down at the pavement.  
  
"And you never know," Duke said. "I may come back here again soon. Or maybe, you'll come to Japan."  
  
"Maybe," Amber agreed, still looking down.  
  
"But anyway, let's not worry about that today! Where did you want to go?" Duke asked happily.  
  
Amber looked up, smiling.  
  
"I don't know," she said with a grin. "But you're right. Let's not think about tomorrow right now...but...you WILL promise to e-mail me, right?"  
  
"Every day!" **  
  
One tear streamed down Duke's cheek and hit the plastic covering of the photos.   
  
"Why didn't I just e-mail?" he thought sadly. "Then nothing like this would have ever happened. And now..."   
  
He tried to swallow, but there was a lump in his throat.  
  
"Now she doesn't even want to speak to me,"  
  
The phone rang by his desk.  
  
Once.  
  
Twice.  
  
Finally, Duke sighed and picked it up.  
  
"Hello?" he asked grimly.  
  
"Hey Duke!" Came a bright, cheery, voice from the other line. "It's Tea! How did things go tonight?"  
  
"As bad as bad can get," Duke sighed, twirling a the rope to the blinds of the window around his finger.  
  
"Really? What went wrong?"  
  
"Everything. My elevator got stuck and I was late, and then she wouldn't talk to me when I tried to explain," Duke blurted out.  
  
There was a pause.  
  
"Oh, I'm sorry," Tea said sympathetically.  
  
"Thanks," Duke muttered glumly.  
  
"I guess...I'll talk to you tomorrow?" Tea asked, uncertaintly.  
  
"Sure," Duke said. "It's Saturday and I guess I'll go to Yugi's."  
  
"Okay," Tea said brightly. "Good Bye!"  
  
"See yu," Duke muttered as he dropped the phone back on the hook.  
  
Duke stayed awake until 1:20 in the morning, thinking about what to do, when suddenly, he knew what he could do.  
  
The next morning, Duke was up early, and had already walked over to the Willow Hotel by 9:00.  
  
He boldly walked up to Amber's room, and knocked on the door.  
  
This time, Amber opened the door, but when she saw who it was, she lowered her gaze and walked back inside.  
  
"What do you want?" she asked in a low voice.  
  
Duke walked cautiously inside. Amber's things were all gone and inside her suitcases which lay on the floor.  
  
"Amber...what are you doing?" Duke asked, as she put on her back pack and propped up her case.  
  
"I'm going home," she said shortly. "There's not much to do here anyway."  
  
"Amber," Duke said as she started for the door. "Please! I didn't mean to leave you like that last night! I should have left earlier; it wasn't my fault the elevator got..."  
  
"Duke, please," Amber said as she headed for the door. "Don't make it worse."  
  
"Please don't go," Duke said as she turned around.  
  
"Well, I am," Amber said and turned and walked out the door. "Good bye, Duke Devlin."  
  
Duke ran toward the door and looked outside, and watched Amber Johnson walk down the hall and out of his life.  
  
****  
  
End of Chapter 4! I know it's a cliffhanger, but things will get better. Please review my story, and let me know what you think. Thank you for reading! 


	5. Chapter 5

Chapter 5  
  
Duke stood there for a few moments, stunned. Amber was...leaving? He heard the elevator door close, which indicated Amber had left.  
  
Gone for good.  
  
Duke walked over to her neatly made bed and sat down on it. How could he have let things get this bad?  
  
"This is terrible," Duke thought. "I can't believe it."  
  
Duke sat there for a few more minutes, trying to accept what had just happened, when suddenly, he looked up at the door again. Then, he bolted up and sped down the hallway.  
  
"I'm not going to let her run away like that," Duke thought as he pressed the elevator button a few more times than necessary. "I've got to talk to her; make her believe me!"  
  
A few seconds later, he was down at the bottom floor and sprinting out of the hotel.  
  
Meanwhile, Amber had chosen to walk to the airport, rather than call a Taxi. She wanted to think and be alone.  
  
"I can't believe I came here to see someone who hasn't thought about me in weeks," she thought sadly to herself, lugging her rolling suitcase behind her.  
  
She walked down an ally to take a short cut, when she heard a sound behind her. She whirled around, but no one was there.  
  
"It's just my dumb imagination," she hissed to herself and continued walking.  
  
A second later, she heard a voice behind her.  
  
"Hello," It said, in a very familiar voice.  
  
The reason it was so familiar was because it was English.  
  
She whirled around again to see a blonde man wearing the American flag as a bandana around his head. He wore black sunglasses, to look frightening, but Amber wasn't scared. She knew who he was.  
  
"Hey, aren't you Bandit-whatever?" she asked sharply when she recognized him.   
  
"Bandit KEITH," he snapped angrily at her.  
  
"Whatever, I'm busy so buzz off," Amber snapped.  
  
She wasn't in the mood to be patient. She turned around and continued down the ally, but two other boys walked in front of her way.  
  
"What's this all about?" she asked Keith angrily.  
  
"Well, you could say I'm a bit soar about losing to you back in America a few weeks ago," Keith said playfully, as the two boys cracked their knuckles menacingly.  
  
"So?" Amber asked, her voice shaking slightly as she backed up a bit.  
  
"So, I've decided to get some revenge," Keith said evilly, beckoning the two boys forward.  
  
Amber dropped her suitcase and started to run, but one of the boys tripped her.  
  
"Ow!" she cried as her ankle twisted at an odd angle as she fell.  
  
She backed away from the three, but she was no match for all of them alone...  
"Amber?!" Duke called breathlessly as he ran down the road. "Amber?! Where are you?"  
  
He halted to catch his breath in front of an ally.  
  
"Where could she be?" Duke asked himself, looking around.   
  
His eyes caught onto something in the alley. It was a suitcase and a back pack.  
  
"These are..." he muttered, running up to them. "Amber's!"  
  
"AMBER!" he called, looking around, his voice echoing in the alley. "What could have happened? She's been nabbed and it's all my fault!"  
  
He took off down the twisting alley, looking down every section of the maze for a sign of her.  
  
Finally, he approached a large open area, where the burnt warehouse stood. Yugi had mentioned the story to him once, how someone had accidentally set it on fire.  
  
It was now condemned.  
  
Duke looked at the sign next to the building.   
  
"CAUTION. KEEP AWAY! CONDEMNED AREA! DATE OF DESTRUCTION: May 2nd"  
  
"May 2nd?" Duke asked. "That's today! I'd better get out of here before they start moving in with the wrecking equipment."  
  
Duke started to move away from the area, then he stopped. He thought he had heard a noise from the old warehouse.  
  
"That's ridiculous," he thought, starting to walk away again. "No one would be in there..."  
  
He turned around again.  
  
"Or maybe they would," he thought, running up to the place.  
  
He ran up to the door, expecting it to be easy to open from the fire, but instead, it was bolted shut.  
  
"Hey!" Duke called, banging on the door. "You'd better get out of here! This place is condemned you know! And they're going to tear it down today!"  
  
There were a few footsteps coming up to the door, then, the door opened.  
  
"You are...Bandit Keith!" Duke cried, stepping back. "Hey, this isn't the best place to be hanging out, you know..."  
  
His eyes wandered toward the inside of the house, where he noticed someone tied to a chair inside.  
  
"Hey...what are you doing...AMBER!" Duke cried, starting to get very angry.  
  
"Duke?" Amber asked, looking up from where she was tied.  
  
"Get him," Keith told the two boys from before.  
  
Duke backed away, his fists up. There was no way he could fight three guys at once, save Amber, AND get out of there before the place was torn down...but then again, he WAS Duke Devlin, wasn't he?  
  
"Yeah," Duke thought to himself. "I've got to try at least."  
  
However, no matter how bravely he fought, he was over-powered by the three, and tossed into the warehouse.   
  
He landed on the floor next to Amber's chair.  
  
"Duke! What are you doing here?" Amber asked, looking down at him.   
  
He was a wreck from the fight.  
  
"Amber, we've got to get out!" he cried, but the door slammed and locked behind him.  
  
"Hey!" he called, banging on the door. "Let us out!"  
  
"Sorry," he heard a vague voice from behind him. "Too late. It looks as though the wrecking team has finally arrived."  
  
Duke heard a loud tractor noise, like several wrecking trucks moving in.  
  
"Oh great," he muttered, running over to Amber and starting to untie her. "What were you doing with them anyway?"  
  
"Me? I was walking to the airport, HE kidnapped me to get "revenge" for his loss to me or something," Amber snapped. "What a soar loser."  
  
"We don't have time for that now!" Duke said as he worked out the last thick knot and pulled the ropes off.  
  
He could hear the construction workers muttering outside, but they had left the trucks on, meaning any attempt to scream would be pointless.  
  
"Come on!" Duke said, starting to run for the back door.  
  
"Ow," Amber moaned, her leg slipping out from under her, causing her to fall back down.  
  
Duke skidded to a halt and ran back to her.  
  
"What's wrong?" he asked, helping her up.  
  
"When I was trying to get away from creepy Keith, I did something to my ankle," she muttered, trying to get up. "Darn it."  
  
Duke could hear the machines get louder outside. They were going to start wrecking in a few minutes!  
  
"Come on!" he said, bending down and lifting Amber off the ground.   
  
"Duke!" she cried, embarrassed, as they started for the door.  
  
"This place is about to be torn down! We've got to get out of here!"  
  
He hurried over to the door and stopped. Amber was starting to get heavy.   
  
"Um," he muttered, putting her down for a second. "Hang on."  
  
He ran over to the door and slammed up against it. It wouldn't budge.  
  
"Darn it! This place is almost perfect, yet they're tearing it down because of a few burn marks?" he muttered as he tried to force the door open.  
  
Amber looked around, trying to find something to help. Suddenly, her eyes landed on a pole lying near the dueling arena.  
  
"How about that?" she called, pointing to it.  
  
Duke turned around and rushed over to the pole.   
  
"What am I supposed to do with it?" he asked as he ran back over to the door.  
  
"Stick it through the door handle and pull! It'll yank it off!" Amber called.  
  
"Okay," Duke said, pushing the rusty rod through the holes between the handles to the door.  
  
"Here...goes..." he muttered as he pulled backwards with all his might.  
  
A few seconds later, there was a sound of breaking wood, and the door handles fell to the ground with a clatter.  
  
"Yeah!" Amber cried happily.  
  
"Hurry!" Duke cried, flinging open the doors and picking Amber back up again.  
  
The two ran out the door and away from the building as a wrecking ball crashed through the ceiling, showering the ground inside with splintering pieces of wood.  
  
Duke backed away.  
  
"Let's get out of here," he said and hurried away from the area.  
  
When they got to the town square, Duke put Amber down on a bench and sat down next to her.   
  
"Whew!" Duke sighed, exhausted.   
  
Amber looked away.  
  
"Thanks, Duke, for saving me like that," she said, rather embarrassedly.   
  
"No...problem," Duke said, looking over at her.  
  
A strong wind blew by.  
  
"Um...Duke?" Amber asked, turning back toward him. "Can I ask you something?"  
  
"What?"  
  
"Why did you follow me?"  
  
"What do you mean?" Duke asked.  
  
"I mean, you had to have been following me to find my luggage," Amber said.  
  
"Oh, well..." Duke broke off.  
  
"I wasn't going to let you run away without knowing the truth," he said.  
  
"About last night?" Amber asked.  
  
Duke nodded.  
  
"It wasn't my fault. The elevator I was in got stuck half-way down between two floors," Duke said, honestly. "I tried to call for help but it was an hour before they got me out."  
  
"You got...stuck?"   
  
Amber started to giggle. Then she started laughing, so hard tears were coming out of her eyes.  
  
"It wasn't funny last night!" Duke protested, slightly upset.  
  
"I'm sorry, Duke," Amber said, still laughing. "It's just...I was so angry at you last night because I thought you were blowing me off, but here it turns out that you were..." She laughed again.  
  
And Duke started laughing too.  
  
After a few minutes, they stopped laughing, and Duke stood up.  
  
"Are you still mad at me?"  
  
"No," Amber laughed. "I'm sorry about blowing up at you earlier."  
  
"And I'm sorry for not writing," Duke replied.  
  
There was a pause.  
  
"So...what are you going to do now?" Duke asked her, helping her to her feet.  
  
"I'm going to stay in Japan for a while more," Amber said, pulling out her plane tickets. "I was going to cash these in for an earlier flight, as my real flight doesn't leave for another week and a half."  
  
"Well, in that case, we'd better go get your luggage from the alley," Duke said. "Before someone else does."  
  
"Okay!" Amber said cheerfully.  
  
Duke put his arm around her shoulder, and he and Amber limped off down the sidewalk, reunited once more, and Duke was sure that this time, their friendship would last a VERY long time...  
  
****  
  
So what did you think?  
"I think it was..."  
I wasn't asking you, Red Archery Girl, I was asking our readers. Anyway, please review, and let us know what you thought of it!   
"And get ready for a VERY exciting, VERY funny new fic to be coming up soon, involving a new mini-tournament!"  
:) 


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